Most of us are familiar with insurance. Periodically, you pay a premium in return for a promise by a company to pay for a loss you may incur that the policy covers, up to a specific total amount. Almost anything can be insured. We are all aware of automobile policies, and coverage for our homes. And of course, we have various insurance policies that cover our business. [Read more…]
I can’t work for anybody else.
Maybe you are like me. You chafe under the authority of a boss. Even a benevolent boss who may be a great person to work for still exercises a great deal of control over your day. [Read more…]
The best job ever?
Solopreneuring is the best alternative to a job. In today’s world, no one has assurances of continued employment except under rare circumstances. Virtually every job, even those once deemed to be less subject to layoffs, are no longer safe harbors. And as for myself, I feel more secure trying to make my own job, so to speak, every day. As an entrepreneur you are in control of your future. Well, more control anyway. And no, there is no security when you run your own business. But there’s not much working as a wage slave for someone else either
Yet another reason to be an entrepreneur . . .
Being on my own gives me the opportunity to brainstorm and to solve puzzles my own way. One of the missions of virtually every large organization, from the military on down to most corporate environments, is to train or mold employees into serviceable parts. Whether you are a private in the U.S. Army, or you are an IBM-er, you have to be trained or indoctrinated into matching your goals with those of your organization. On my own, I make up the goals. Moreover, I really enjoy brainstorming to try to figure out solutions to problems. That’s something that’s tough to do as a wage slave. Yes, I know there are companies that value innovation and encourage free-form thinking, but I believe these are still rare. With myself, sometimes bouncing ideas off of other colleagues, I can think of 100 ideas, of which 99 would suck, but one of them might be really valuable. Not only is this a cool way to spend my day, I think I might be run out of any typical big organization.
What exactly is a “small business?”
We occasionally hear political discourse about the need to support small business in America. Regardless of which side of the political aisle you find yourself — and admittedly the size of that aisle is cavernous these days — we find a common definition of “small business.” The small business of which Washington DC speaks is one with 12 full-time employees and $5 million a year in annual sales. Now, many entrepreneurs want to get to that point. But I believe the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of small businesses in America support one person, the owner; the average small business delights its owner when it crosses into six figures of revenues.
The Seven Deadly Sins of entrepreneurship — Number Six
The sixth undesirable trait that Gandhi cautions us about is politics without principle. No, we are not entering into the minefield of the current state of American politics! What this trait speaks to, which is applicable to the study of entrepreneurship, is the dangers of creating a public persona that bears little resemblance to one’s authentic self. [Read more…]
Perhaps the most critical tool for success is . . .
Long gone are the days when Emotional Intelligence was seen as flowery add-on to corporate training seminars or as something that would be nice, but not necessary, for a firm’s success. These assumptions about EI in the workplace are rapidly being put to rest as more and more organizations – from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies, solo entrepreneurs to non-profit organizations – realize the importance of having self or staff that has been trained in emotional intelligence strategies, and who know how to navigate coworkers’, colleagues’ and clients’ emotional trigger points. By doing so, better outcomes are achieved, and the organization as a whole, whether large or small, becomes more successful. [Read more…]
The Seven Deadly Sins of entrepreneurship — Number Five
The fifth of the Seven Deadly Sins is worship without sacrifice. For purposes of adapting this maxim into the world of the entrepreneur, I have substituted the word spirituality for worship. In today’s Western society, while some will claim to have a set of religious beliefs, almost all of us feel we have a spiritual side to our being. [Read more…]
The Seven Deadly Sins of entrepreneurship — part four
The fourth of Gandhi’s seven spiritually detrimental traits is knowledge without character. In the world of entrepreneurship, think of this fourth trait or sin, as being all analytical while ignoring your “softer” side. In other words, you deal only with cold, hard facts, and brush off the intuitive, emotional, and creative elements of your self. [Read more…]
How to make more money in your business . . .
There are two components to whether a business is successful, bottom-line-wise: high revenues and low expenses.